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Eight years ago we set out to improve Michigan through unbiased, nonprofit journalism. We are still here and still adding reporters thanks in large part to our members. If you appreciate our nonpartisan approach, please become a Bridge Club member. We have five members-only events this fall around the state, including a MSU vs. Michigan football tailgate in Ann Arbor on November 16. Join us!

In this Q-and-A, historian and National Book Award finalist Heather Ann Thompson argues that draconian police tactics in black Detroit neighborhoods had as much to do with the city’s decimation as white flight and lost jobs

UM education dean Deborah Loewenberg Ball slams the Legislature’s latest bill to rate teachers. She urges the state to instead adopt her panel’s recommendations, which she said would be the nation’s gold standard for raising classroom performance.

Bridge sat down with Kati Haycock, founder of the Education Trust in Washington, D.C., to talk about reversing Michigan’s decline and what schools can do for low-income kids when parents aren’t in the game.

Southeast Michigan is poised to get a share of $1.3 billion in U.S. economic development grants. Lisa Baragar Katz, executive director of the Workforce Intelligence Network for Southeastern Michigan tells Bridge how the money should be spent.

Benton Harbor’s first emergency manager sidelined elected officials and a public war soon followed. EMs have authority to make the hard cuts that elected leaders won’t, but entrenched politics are harder to ax.

The devil is always in the details, but year-round bill sponsor Andy Schor, D-Lansing, says the pilot program spearheaded by him and Gov. Rick Snyder will ultimately win support from parents, students, and teachers.